


A Thorn In Your Side (Until You Die)

by lovelyleias



Category: Alien (1979), Alien Series, Alien: Isolation (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, help them, my faves saving each other's asses, ripley and samuels are terrible at expressing their feelings, some minor shoutouts to aliens 1986
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 12:42:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7684921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelyleias/pseuds/lovelyleias
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Waits works on his plan to capture the alien, Amanda and Samuels head out on a supply run.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Thorn In Your Side (Until You Die)

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of an AU; an additional scene after Amanda talks to Marlow, but before they attempt to trap the Xenomorph,

The interior of the Marshal’s Bureau seemed cramped and small after the vastness of Sevastopol. Truly, the space was quite expansive; with a large lobby connected to the main office, and several rooms and cells, too. Amanda stood in the meeting room above Taylor’s makeshift bed, almost soothed by her soft snores. Breathing was good, breathing was promising. 

Marlow’s story spun around her head. _We never found her ship, Ripley. Just the recorder._

The door to the main office slid open, pulling her from her thoughts. Samuels poked his head in, and walked over to join her.

“How is she?” He asked quietly. 

“She’s alright,” Amanda replied, jamming her fists into the pockets of her jumpsuit. “Just went back to sleep.”

Taylor had been lucid by the time they had all gathered at the Bureau, and had even been walking a little, but it was clear that she would have to conserve to her energy if she wanted to survive what was to come.

“We’re going to have to move at some point,” Samuels mused. “I hope she’s strong enough.”

“She’ll have to be,” Amanda told him firmly, and brushed a stray lock of hair from Taylor’s pale face. “We’re not leaving her behind.”

A loud knock hit the window and Amanda jumped. It was only Waits rapping his knuckles sharply on the glass. He beckoned them into the main office, but turned away before they could respond. Amanda gave Samuels a wry smile and gestured for him to go first. As he exited, Amanda took a few breaths to calm her pounding heart.

Ricardo hovered by one of the messy desks, staring with concern at the bulky weapon lying on top.

“Is that what I think it is?” Amanda joined him, her eyes widening. While she was no stranger to complex technology, she’d never seen anything like that in real life. “Why do you have a flamethrower?”

“Same reason why so many people on this station have guns,” Waits came up beside her and picked the flamethrower up. “Give someone a little firepower and suddenly they’re not afraid of anything.”

“Do you think it’ll work on the creature?” Samuels queried. 

“Bullets seem to do jack-shit, so I doubt it’ll kill it,” Waits admitted. “But all animals are afraid of fire.”

“This isn’t any animal,” Ricardo interjected as Amanda nodded. 

“No,” Waits agreed, slapping the side of the weapon. “But this is all we’ve got.”

Amanda let out a huffy breath. Waits clearly had something in mind. “What are you thinking?”

“We’re not going to make it far with out water and food. I think I have a plan to trap it, but we’re going to need to refuel first. There are some emergency rations locked in a supply room not too far away.”

After everything he had done, she should not be surprised, and yet Amanda rubbed her eyes with exhausted frustration. “And why is it that you don’t keep the emergency supplies in the fucking Marshall’s Bureau?”

“We wanted to keep them readily available to the public.”

_“Then why is the door locked?”_

“While the Seegson execs were running around doing fuck-all, the worst things me and my guys were dealing with were petty thieves and dumb drunks. There’s nothing in the manual about goddamned monsters.”

“Okay,” Samuels intervened before Amanda could snap back. “Someone has to go. It should be me.”

“No.” Waits thrust the flamethrower at Amanda. “You’re going.”

Amanda backed away. “And how the fuck do you figure that?” She spat out angrily.

“You’re the one who took down all of our defences,” Waits accused. 

“I’ll go,” Samuels interjected again. “I’d be safer than any of you.”

“You said it yourself: she has the technical skills. If she runs into any of our barricades, she can take them down. She’s proven that, too.”

Amanda stared furiously at Waits for a moment. She saw the anger written plainly on his face. She saw the fear hidden just behind. Silently, she reached out, and accepted the flamethrower. It was a heavy and unfamiliar weight. She bent her knees and slung the strap over her shoulder. 

“Ripley, don’t do anything rash,” Samuels protested. “You don’t have anything to prove.”

“I’ll do it,” she said firmly, meeting the eyes of the three men before her. “Taylor needs water. So do we. I’ll do it.”

Samuels sighed, yielding. “I’d like to go, too.”

Amanda shook her head. “Someone has to look after Taylor.”

“I will,” Ricardo interjected quickly. Samuels gave him a nod of gratitude. 

Waits dug into his pockets and tossed Samuels a keycard and a piece of paper. “Fine. I’ve drawn up a map.”

Samuels pocketed the key and smoothed out the crude map, allowing Amanda to lean over and see the route.

“Let’s go,” she glanced back once more at Taylor, and took the lead.

—

They climbed through the vents slowly, careful not to make excess noise. But it was not long before they began to speak in hushed voices. Sometimes, there was nothing more frightening than silence. 

“Did Marlow tell you anything interesting?” Samuels asked as they descended a ladder. 

“Yeah,” Amanda sucked in a shaky breath. “But not enough. They didn’t find the _Nostromo_. But something on that planet attached itself to his wife’s face. I think I saw her body when I went for the trauma kit. What ever came out of her… it grew fast. He wouldn’t tell me anything else, unless I cut him a deal.”

Samuels face glowed in the beam of her flashlight. “And did you?”

Amanda frowned as they turned a corner, annoyed that he would make such an assumption. But before she could defend herself, she saw his lips twitch into the bare bones of a smile. She let out a quick burst of surprised laughter. “You had me going.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Amanda raised an eyebrow and adjusted the flamethrower strap. “Humour looks good on you.”

Samuels pulled out the map, and peered at it almost shyly. “It think we need to get out at the next exit.”

They were silent as they hurried through the end of the vent. Amanda clambered out first, flamethrower aimed straight ahead. Samuels jerked his head to a door at the end of the hall. When they reached it, he swiped the keycard into the lock as Amanda stood guard. 

“It’s sticking,” he told her, trying again. The door swung open with a beep and a Working Joe burst out in front of them

“ _You shouldn’t be here_ ,” it droned, sights set on Amanda. 

“Shit,” she hissed, pulling out her Maintenance Jack. She thrusted it down towards the Joe’s head, but the android deflected the blow and shoved her hard into the door frame. She dropped the Jack as pain exploded in her shoulder. 

“Ripley!” Samuels shouted, rushing forward.

“ _Weyland-Yutani synthetic registered_ ,” it tilted its head and moved towards him. Amanda scrambled to her feet and grabbed her weapon. Before she could strike, Samuels curled his hand into a fist and brought it down hard against the android’s face. Its nose broke with a crunch, and white fluid gushed down its face. He cracked his other fist against its temple and the side of its face crumpled like paper. He hit it again and again until it slumped to the ground, a gory mess of wires and milky fluid. 

Samuels stepped back. “It’s dead.”

 _If he was human_ , Amanda thought, staring at him in amazement, _his hands would be torn to shreds_.

_If he was human, he wouldn’t be able to touch it at all._

Samuels knelt by the broken synthetic. Amanda sheathed the Maintenance Jack into a loop on her jumpsuit, and took a step toward him. 

“How’s your shoulder?” He asked softly. 

“Just a bit sore,” she answered truthfully. “Are you alright?”

He didn’t answer immediately. “I’m sorry you saw me like that.”

“I’m not,” she argued with some heat. “You saved us.”

She stretched her hand out toward him. He turned and regarded it thoughtfully, before twining his fingers with her own. His hands were slick with white fluid, and hers with sweat, but she managed to haul him to his feet. 

“That was brave,” she told him seriously. She ducked into the storage room, and after a moment, he followed.

The room was hardly more than a closet, and they scavenged it efficiently, shoving canned goods and bottled water into Amanda’s bag. Amanda stopped briefly to guzzle some water down, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand.

Samuels left first that time, smearing the last of the synthetic fluid onto his flight suit. A pounding sound echoed in the ceiling above them, and Amanda gasped.

“Wait a minute,” she halted and pressed a hand against Samuels’ arm. “It’s coming.”

After a bang just above their heads, the creature tumbled gracefully from the ceiling, pouring itself onto the floor like a puddle of oil. 

It turned around the shocking grace for something so enormous. Amanda gritted her teeth and forced herself to bottle up her panic and fear. There would be time for that later, but at the that moment she had to focus on surviving.

“Get behind me, Samuels,” Amanda whispered, pushing in front of him. The creature seemed to ignore the Joes, but she had no idea what it would think of him. The alien turned at the sound of her voice, and opened its terrible jaws.

“Okay,” she ignored the chills of fear that ran up and down her body. Nausea churned her stomach. “Okay, come on.”

The creature started to stalk toward them. Samuels said something, but Amanda’s wasn’t focused on him. She saw and heard nothing but the monster that was coming to claim her. She flipped the ignition valve and pressed a finger against the trigger. Flames burst out of the weapon, and died down just as fast. The creature hissed, taking a single step back. 

“Shit,” Amanda cursed, and pushed down harder on the trigger. Flames roared out of the weapon, blinding her. Somewhere in the sound of the flame, she heard inhuman screams. The flames fizzled out, and she saw a long tail disappear back into the ceiling vent. She had scared it, perhaps even hurt it. Waits thought of it as an animal, and animals grew more vicious when they were wounded or angry. It would come back.

Amanda bared her teeth and her shoulders heaved with every breath. She recalled what Waits had said about weapons giving people power. She sure as shit wasn’t fearless, but good god, the flamethrower in her hands made her feel strong.

“What the fuck,” she breathed, staring up at the ceiling, “are we going to say if we make it home?”

Samuels shook his head, peering up, too. “I have absolutely no idea.”

Amanda tore her eyes away. “We have to leave.”

She threw herself back into the vent, and he trailed just behind. They made only a little progress before he touched her arm insisted that she stop. “Amanda, you’re shaking.”

“It’s adrenaline. I’m fine.”

“Just wait for a moment. We can wait, it’s not here.”

Amanda swallowed. “Okay.” She touched his fingers where he held her arm. “You’re shaking, too,” she noted, confused by the shockingly human reaction.

“It’s simulated,” he reassured her. “I’m programmed to have appropriate responses to various emotions.”

“That doesn’t make them any less real,” she said, forcing her voice not to waver. “Are you afraid?”

“Yes,” he admitted, so simply.

“Then it counts,” she said fiercely, and gripped his hand. “ _You_ count. We have to _move_.”

“Alright, Amanda,” he agreed softly, and she bit down the inside of her cheek. There was something lovely about the way he said her name.

They reached the Bureau without interruption. The door was emblazoned by the sentiments toward Waits that the Sevastopol residents seemed to share.

“Fuck the Marshals,” Samuels read, his voice tinted with amusement. 

Amanda looked at him warmly; not sure that she’d ever heard him swear. “Fuck the Marshals,” she agreed. “Except for Ricardo.”

Samuels smiled as that, showing perfectly formed teeth.

“We should go in,” she told him reluctantly. Samuels nodded, but he stepped closer toward her.

“I want you to know that you’re going to get through this,” he was so sincere and so near. “And, whatever you might think, you are not alone here.”

Amanda searched his face; so honest and open. She was not used to being understood, or cared for. But Samuels seemed to know her. He had felt what it was like to be an outsider, to be lonely. They were so close to each other, and so similar in height. If she were to move forward, their lips would touch. 

“I know,” she grasped his hand again, squeezed it once, and released him. “Neither are you.”

She stepped away and opened the door. “Waits says he has a plan to capture it. He’s not going to be able to do it without us. Let’s go.”

Samuels opened his mouth to say something, but shook his head instead, and followed her inside.

They could talk more later. They still had time.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a lyric lovingly lifted from [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxvhprV3-Sc). This is the third time I've borrowed a lyric from CHVRCHES for Alien 'verse fic, so I owe them a huge shout out. A lot of their music makes me think of various Alien characters, and aspects of the series. Check them out.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading, and come talk to me about Alien over [here.](http://lovelyleias.tumblr.com/)


End file.
